Project Definition from Orlando Posted By Kelly

I copy the following information about pastoral families’ situation in Latin America.

It's part of the God’s purpose for me, to get contacts and support or join me with others in an interdenominational project consisting in helping to enforce, restore, integrate and empowering ministerial families around the world. (In Guatemala, in the case of ML760 Wholistic Missions Project)

I’m sorry because I can’t express clearly my ideas in English when I speak. I hope this help to clarify the project.

Many of these pastoral families take care of a congregation, but they have not pastoral care. They have overseers, but many times they don’t provide counseling or another spiritual and emotional help. They don’t have the opportunity of vacations or any recreation to renewal themselves. All the time they are giving but not receiving.

Many of them don’t have enough money to send their children to school. The school is free the first 9 grades, in the main locations and in the main cities, 1--12 too. Many of these families don’t live in those locations and need to send their children walking or by car, bus or truck which they can not to pay or send them to live in the town but they can not to pay, either. A very few of them can go to the college for the same situation.

Many of these families don’t have a house where to live. They live in a room beside the church but at the time when they can not to be pastors, for any circumstance, they have many problems, they children suffer and many families have resentment against the church.

Many pastoral families are broken and we don’t have a restoration program or special places where they can be ministered.

How can we help them?

This is a very big dream. Ministerial families are the army of God to do and continue the Great Commission. They need weapons, training and care.

No soldier ever serves in the army and pays his own salary. No one ever plants a vineyard without eating some of the grapes. No person takes care of a flock without drinking some of the milk. 1 Corinthians 9:7 (NCV)

They can and want to do better but they need support to be empowering and developed.

I hope this explanation may help in the definition of our project.

Alert

Can we determine "Where will I go for mission?" What area in Guatemala in particular will be our ministry context? Until we determine this, we can not move forward. Next, we need to identify the one issue. Someone offer feedback please.

Guatemala Unemployment rates, income, health care and religious influences

From CIA World Factbook Current as May 16, 2008
Current Unemployment Rate in Guatemala is 3.2%. This is the same number as 2007 and is less than 2003-2006 which was close to 8% in each of those years.

Check out this link for something already being done to combat poverty in Guatemala:
http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/14NGO.aspx

Gross Domestic Product per Person. Total amount of money a country makes divided by the total inhabitants.
This is from the 2008 CIA World Factbook
This is the data for Guatemala : $5,400 GDP per person average as of 2007
56.2% live below the poverty line

Agriculture - products: sugarcane, corn, bananas, coffee, beans, cardamom; cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens
Industries: sugar, textiles and clothing, furniture, chemicals, petroleum, metals, rubber, tourism

Guatemala is the largest and most populous of the Central American countries with a GDP per capita roughly one-half that of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The distribution of income remains highly unequal with about 56% of the population below the poverty line. Other ongoing challenges include increasing government revenues, negotiating further assistance from international donors, upgrading both government and private financial operations, curtailing drug trafficking and rampant crime, and narrowing the trade deficit. Given Guatemala's large expatriate community in the United States, it is the top remittance recipient in Central America, with inflows serving as a primary source of foreign income equivalent to nearly two-thirds of exports.

Guatemala Demographics

This is from the CIA World Factbook. It is a good overview of demographics. Take some time to look at closely.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gt.html